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taking the lead
What’s Your Strategic
Alignment Quotient?
Richard Y. Chang, Ph.D.
How can you
make sure that you
and your peers are
working collectively
for the greater good
of the organization?
Strategic planning is nothing new. Most organizations go through some sort of annual strategic planning exercise to determine long-term
goals and the key strategic priorities and initiatives that should drive resource allocation.
Whether or not their process is systematic or
ad hoc, the overarching desire is to create organizational alignment of work effort and identify the appropriate measures to gauge how well
they are performing against their plans.
Regardless of whether your organization is systematic or ad hoc in its strategic planning, it is
critical that you, as the CLO, and other senior
leaders in your organization regularly confirm
that your work and priorities are strategically
aligned with the priorities of the organization.
A rowing team must work together in alignment in order to win, or at least cross the finish
line. An orchestra must cooperate in alignment
to make beautiful music. Similarly, senior-level
organizational leaders must ensure that the
workforce also works in total alignment for the
greater good so that their organizations can win
(achieve their strategic goals) and make beautiful music (act as a high-performing organizational culture).
In order for you and other senior leaders in your
organization to understand your strategic alignment quotient, it is helpful to examine current
leadership behaviors. Take a few minutes to score
the following items, using a scale of 0 (not at all
or “don’t know”) to 4 (to a very large extent):
I understand the organization’s vision, strategic goals and priorities, and how they relate to
the work that I do.
August 2005
I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer
20
I help members on the team that I lead
understand the organization’s vision, strategic
goals and priorities.
I regularly use the organization’s vision,
strategic goals and priorities to help determine my own goals and priorities.
Richard Y. Chang, Ph.D.,
is founder and CEO of
Richard Chang Associates,
and is author of “The Passion
Plan.” He can be reached at
[email protected].
I make decisions that are clearly aligned with
and support the organization’s vision, strategic goals and priorities.
Members of the team that I lead regularly
update their own goals and priorities to
ensure they are aligned with the organization’s vision, strategic goals and priorities.
Although this mini-self-assessment is only meant
to be a rough directional indicator, it can assist
you to determine whether you need to implement any behavioral changes. If you scored from
15 to 20, there is little evidence that you need to
improve your current behaviors and strategic
alignment quotient. If you scored from 10 to 14,
you should begin rethinking your behaviors and
improving your strategic alignment quotient. If
you scored 9 or less, rethinking your current
behaviors and improving your strategic alignment quotient should be a high priority.
So, what are some ways you and other senior
leaders can improve your strategic alignment
quotient? How can you make sure that you and
your peers are working collectively for the
greater good of the organization?
Eliminate out-of-alignment initiatives:
Many projects and initiatives that are not
strategically required may consume critical
resources without supporting the greater
good. Consider eliminating these projects or
initiatives or placing them on hold.
Conduct regular alignment checks: Allowing
critical resources to be misaligned for six or nine
months could lead to significant drops in organizational performance. Design quarterly (or at
minimum, semi-annually) alignment checks
that help validate the vertical and horizontal
alignment of strategic priorities and resource
allocation throughout the organization.
Close alignment gaps: Be sure to reallocate
resources when alignment gaps are discovered. This may mean eliminating your pet
project or initiative, or helping the members
on your team let go of some of their pet projects or initiatives.
Taking the lead in this manner will require you
to assess how aligned you are to the organization’s vision and strategic goals and priorities. It
also means fulfilling your CLO role by providing other senior leaders with the tools and
resources to assess how strategically aligned
they are with the organization’s focus.
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